In taking the matter on the legality of Petroleum Development Act 1974 to the Federal Court, PETRONAS is actually doing what the Sarawak State Government ought to have done a year ago.
Since Abang Jo took over the Chief Minister post last year, he has repeatedly told Sarawakians that the PDA is null and void and thus is irrelevant to Sarawak.
However, to any lawyer in town, we all know that only the Federal Court has the authority to declare any law passed in Parliament to be “null and void”. A Chief Minister or even the Prime Minister has no power to declare a law passed in Parliament to be “null and void”. That is the basic first-year law school textbook knowledge.
As the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Abang Jo should not be giving the people of Sarawak a false hope that the PDA is “null and void” without seeking a Court declaration that the Act is in fact and in law “null and void”.
As such, given Abang Jo is so confident about his claim that the PDA is “null and void” as far as Sarawak is concerned, I have before the GE14 called upon him to challenge the validity of the Act in Court. For reasons only known to himself, Abang Jo has hitherto refused to bring the matter to Court.
While the Sarawak State Government has failed to challenge the legality of PDA in Court, the PETRONAS’ suit has now presented the Sarawak State Government an opportunity to prove its claim.
However, if the Court’s decision goes otherwise, we Pakatan Harapan will still honour our Election Manifesto pledges of giving Sarawak 20% oil and gas royalties or its equivalence.
In fact, the pledge of 20% oil and gas royalty is also in line with what the late Adenan Satem sought in the Sarawak DUN motion passed in May, 2014. It was only when Abang Jo became the Chief Minister that he suddenly went beyond the demand set by the late Adenan and started claiming that the PDA was “null and void”. Yet, Abang Jo stopped short of filing for his claim in Federal Court.
Meanwhile, once the cabinet members are finalized, we will also form the Special Cabinet Committee to look into the devolution of powers and fiscal decentralisation agenda as promised in our Pakatan Harapan Manifesto.